This will surprise you. On Friday and Saturday, German solar power plants produced a record 22 gigawatts of energy – the equivalent output of 20 nuclear plants running at full capacity. The country is already a world-leader in solar power, and hopes to be free of nuclear energy by 2022. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, Germany decided to abandon nuclear power, and immediately closed eight plants.

The Germans will also be shutting down their remaining nine nuclear plants by 2022.

Norbert Allnoch, director of the Institute of Renewable Energy Industry in Muenster, northeast Germany, revealed that the solar power delivered to the national grid on Saturday met 50 per cent of Germany’s energy needs.

On Friday – a normal workday – the amount of solar power generated was able to meet a third of Germany’s electricity needs.

That’s quite a thought.

Allnoch said:

Never before anywhere has a country produced as much photovoltaic electricity. Germany came close to the 20 gigawatt (GW) mark a few times in recent weeks. But this was the first time we made it over. This shows Germany is capable of meeting a large share of its electricity needs with solar power. It also shows Germany can do with fewer coal-burning power plants, gas-burning plants and nuclear plants.

Despite this, solar power production remains expensive, and consumer groups and utility companies point out that the increased reliance on solar and other renewable energy sources will drive the price of electricity upwards in Germany.

Other critics have pointed out obvious factors such as the amount of sun Germany actually gets, and whether or not their growing energy needs will be met with renewable sources in the future.

Germany has almost as many solar power energy units as the rest of the world combined, though this currently only generates four per cent of its annual energy needs. A lot of work clearly still needs to be done.

The country’s energy regulator has predicted a shortfall in energy production this coming winter as a result.

At the moment though, it seems the proof is in the pudding, which is being cooked by energy from the sun.

[Sources: Reuters]